Our hardships, besides, had affected his health; for, all of us noticed how ill he looked during the day when working at clearing away the masts.
"I vas die!" he now exclaimed.
"Dying?
Nonsense, my man, not a bit of it," cried Captain Miles.

"Keep up your courage, and you'll be worth a hundred dead men yet." "Ach nein, I vas die, I knows," replied the other, speaking solemnly in deep low tones.
His German accent and mode of speech seemed to come out more strongly now than I had noticed before; and it flashed across my mind how I had once read somewhere that, when a man is at his last, though he may have lived amongst strangers for years and spoken a foreign tongue, he will then naturally go back to the language and thoughts of his own country.
"Shall I get you some water ?" asked Jackson, who was also awake and heard what Gottlieb had said.
"Nein--no.

I want not water, not nothing," returned the other.
"Listen, I've got to tell you sometings before I vas die.

I did not speak before for fear to make mischief.

You remember my poor frients Hermann ?" "Aye," said Captain Miles, now keenly attentive.